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THE TWIN CALVES 




The Race 






























THE HUM CALVES 


Story and Pictures by 

SANFORD TOUSEY 



JUNIOR PRESS BOOKS 

ALBERT WHITMAN & CO. 

CHICAGO 

1940 

t OO^C| 2,3 



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Tio 49 



To 

Those two hard-riding Wyoming 
ranch boys, Allen and Jess, this 
little volume\ii inscribed by 
The Author. 

RECEIVED 

MAY 17 1940 

COPYRIGHT OFFICE 
Lithographed in the U.S.A. 

C/ClA *.41354 


THE TWIN CALVES 

“Come out by the barn!” shouted A1 to his 
brother Jed. “Dad just brought in twin calves! 
They’re spotted alike and you can’t tell ’em apart. 
Run!” 

Jed ran toward the barn as fast as his legs would 
carry him. He was a year older than his brother, Al. 
Their father, Mr. Dane, owned a big western ranch 
with hundreds of cattle on it. Mr. Dane had promised 
his sons that if ever twin calves were born on his 
ranch each boy was to be given one for his very own. 

When Al and Jed saw the beautiful little twin 
calves with their soft, silky hair they were very happy. 


“They’re both boy calves—just like you two,” 
laughed their father. “How are you going to tell 
them apart without a brand mark on them? I don’t 
believe Boss, their mother, can tell which is which.” 

Jed and A1 were puzzled at this question. The 
marks on each calf were so nearly alike that neither 
boy would know which one was his. 

Finally A1 spied a difference and said, “Look, 
Jed, the end of that one’s tail is all black but this 
one has a white tip on it! I’ll take, the white tip and 
you take the black tip. They’re spotted just alike 
otherwise. I’ll call mine Tippie because of his white 
tail tip.” 







“Yll ta\e the white tip and you ta\e the blac\ tip” 

































Jed replied, “And I’ll call mine Blackie.” 

So Tippie and Blackie they were called. 

Mr. Dane took the mother cow away from the 
big herd of cattle and put her in the cow barn for 
awhile. She had plenty of good milk to feed to both 
calves. A1 and Jed had great fun watching them 
get their dinner. Tippie would feed from the right 
side of her udder and Blackie from the left. When 
their mother didn’t give down her milk fast enough 
to suit the calves they would butt her with their 
heads. Then Boss would get angry, toss her head, 
grunt, and kick at them. But Blackie and Tippie 
knew how to keep away from her hoofs. The boys 
always had a good laugh when the calves dodged 
her kicks. 

In one corner of the barnyard there was a box 
with a big cake of hard salt in it. It was too high for 
the little calves to reach so the boys rubbed their 
damp fingers on it and then let the calves lick the 
salt off their fingers. Before long the calves would 
follow the boys all over the barnyard. 

“Dad, can’t we lead the calves by ropes? We’d 
like to take them up to the house and show Mom,” 
said A1 one morning. 


8 


“All right,” said Mr. Dane. “But don’t let them 
get into the flower bed. You know how much your 
mother thinks of her roses!” 

So A1 and Jed got two ropes and each boy tied 
one around his pet’s neck. Jed opened the big gate 
and they led Blackie and Tippie out of the lot before 
Boss knew what had happened. Boss came up to 
the fence with anxious eyes and watched her babies 
being led away. 

Suddenly she raised her head and said 
“Moo-o-o-o-!” in such a sad tone that Blackie 
and Tippie stopped in their tracks. They knew 
from that cow-language that their mother wanted 
them to come back to her. So they started right back. 

Then A1 and Jed learned how hard a young 
calf could pull. When Blackie and Tippie felt the 
ropes choking them they began to buck around 
like young broncos. They jerked the ropes right 
out of the boys’ hands and galloped all over the 
flower garden with A1 and Jed chasing them. Then 
the calves ran back to the fence where their 
mother licked them with her tongue. 

A1 said, “We’d better go quietly into the house 
and make sure Mother isn’t angry about this! She’s 


9 



probably up front in her sewing room where she 
didn’t hear the noise. We’ll find out.” 


A1 and Jed could hear their mother’s sewing 
machine buzzing away upstairs. They tiptoed slowly 
and quietly up the steps and stood for a minute 
one on each side of her, watching as she ran the 
machine. 

Finally she stopped and looked up. “What is it, 
boys?” she asked. “You can’t have more cookies. 
You ate most of those I made yesterday and I won’t 
bake again before Saturday!” 

“It’s not cookies,” replied Al. 


10 






They began to buck, around like young broncos 






































“It’s the flower garden!” blurted out Jed. 

“Yes,” said their mother. “I think each of you 
should get his hoe and give the garden a good going- 
over. My beautiful roses need some care.” 

“But Blackie and Tippie fixed them,” said Jed. 

“How ridiculous!” replied Mrs. Dane. “I never 
heard of calves hoeing a garden.” 

“You’d be surprised,” said Jed, “what two young 
calves can do to a rose garden.” 

“Don’t tell me those calves trampled my flowers! ” 
said Mrs. Dane. “After all my work and care! I’ll 
look at them just as soon as I finish sewing this hem.” 

In the meantime, when Blackie and Tippie found 
that the fence separated them from their mother 
they began to look around and see the world outside 
the barnyard. They wandered up the path to the 
open kitchen door where things smelled so good. 
Inside the kitchen walked Tippie followed by Blackie. 
On a low bench Mrs. Dane had left two big pans of 
rich milk. She was allowing the cream to gather on 
top before she skimmed it off and took it to the 
cool springhouse. 

Tippie and Blackie stuck their noses into the 
rich cream and then drank the pans dry. “Now for 


12 


some more adventure. It’s a very interesting world,” 
Tippie seemed to be thinking, as he and Blackie 
started through the dining room. 

The boys had made real pets out of the calves 
by this time and Tippie and Blackie could hear the 
voices of A1 and Jed as they talked to their mother 
upstairs. So the twin calves started up. Stairs were 
something new to them. They liked the soft feel 
of the stair carpet and going up seemed easy. 

Suddenly Mrs. Dane heard their footsteps and 
turned. As she saw them she screamed, “Those 
calves! Get them out of my nice clean house!” 

A1 and Jed each grabbed the rope which was 
still around his calf’s neck. They started downstairs 
and tried to pull Tippie and Blackie after them. 
But the calves had different ideas. Coming up had 
been easy but somehow going down seemed harder to 
the four-legged animals. Finally Mrs. Dane grabbed 
a broom from the closet and whacked the calves 
from behind while the boys pulled in front. Down 
they went, clippetty-clop, till they stumbled on the 
last landing and all landed in a heap at the bottom. 
Even Mrs. Dane had to laugh, until they all got 
outside and she saw her wrecked roses. 


13 



They stumbled and landed in a heap at the bottom 











“That settles it!” she said. “Those calves will 
have to be penned up for good!” 

So the boys put Blackie and Tippie back in the 
barnyard with Boss, their mother. 

A1 and Jed each owned a good rope lasso and 
almost every day they went out and practised roping 
the galloping calves. The twins were now so big 
and strong that it took all the strength that A1 and 
Jed had to hold the calves after they were roped. 

One day the boys forgot to latch the big gate 
when they went in to get their dinner. It didn’t 
take the calves long to find it out. They nosed the 


15 










gate open and headed for the field of sweet corn. 
The shoots were young and tender. Tippie and 
Blackie ate the tops off most of the corn before 
Mr. Dane walked outside after dinner. 

“Get out of there!” he roared as he threw a stick 
at the calves. “Jed! Al! Come and put your pets in 
the barnyard before I chase them out on the range!” 

Blackie and Tippie didn’t want to go back into 
the barnyard. Al and Jed finally cornered them and 
roped them. But their father had to saddle his horse 
and drag Blackie and Tippie back where they 
belonged. 

Then came branding day when all the young 
calves had to have Mr. Dane’s Bar d —D brand 
put on them. The cowboys built their fires early 
and started branding before sunup. Mrs. Dane forgot 
to call the boys, who overslept. When they got out 
to the corral Blackie and Tippie had both been 
branded and the cowboys had seen to it that the 
brands were exactly alike and in the same spot on 
each calf. 

“I wanted my twin branded in a different place 
from yours,” said Al. “Sometimes when Tippie 
gets the white tip of his tail dirty I can’t tell him 


16 



from Blackie.” But it was too late. The calves had 
already been turned loose and the cowboys had 
much more work to do that day. 

The boys felt sorry for the branded calves and 
rubbed grease on their sore brand-marks whenever 
they had a chance. 

One day A1 found Jed cutting up some old 
leather straps and tieing them with rope to make 
a harness. 

A1 asked, “What’s that for?” 

Jed replied, “I’m going to hitch Blackie to my 
red wagon. He should be able to pull me around 
now, he’s getting so big. My geography shows a 
picture of cows pulling carts in India and, didn’t 
American pioneers have oxen to pull their cov¬ 
ered wagons?” 


17 








A1 said, “We’ll pretend they’re both oxen! 
I’ll make a harness for Tippie, too! He can pull 
my cart.” 

Tippie and Blackie didn’t know what to think 
of their harness at first. They balked until the boys 
had to get out of their wagons and push the calves. 
Then they’d be off at a gallop, ’round and ’round 
the corral at breakneck speed with A1 and Jed yell¬ 
ing their loudest. It finally became a race, first Tip¬ 
pie leading and then Blackie, until all were tired out. 

There was much talk at the supper table that 


18 






Then they'd be 


off at a gallop 


/ 











































night as to which calf was faster. Later when Tippie 
and Blackie were well trained to pull the wagons, 
Mr. Dane gave the boys odd jobs of hauling to do. 
They hauled the corn from the big crib down to the 
chicken houses and took loads of black soil from the 
bottom land up to their mother’s rose garden. 

“That somewhat makes up for the damage those 
calves did to my roses!” approved their mother. 

Tippie and Blackie grew and grew until the 
boys had to make their harness larger. They were 
the talk of the ranch and of other ranches nearby. 
People drove out of their way to see the Dane boys’ 
twin calves. 

One day Jed said, “Blackie’s big enough to 
ride now. I’m going to get on his back.” 

A1 held onto Blackie’s halter, while Jed jumped 
quickly onto his back. A1 let go as soon as Jed was 
seated and had hold of the reins. 

Then the fun began. Blackie bucked as fast and 
as hard as any bronco on the ranch. Jed had tied a 
rope around Blackie’s middle. He held onto this 
with one hand and onto the reins with the other. 
His hat fell off with the first buck and his hair blew 
all over his face. 


20 


Two cowboys sitting atop the corral yelled, 
“Yippee! Ride ’im, cowboy!” 

Jed felt like a rodeo-rider. He stuck on for over 
a minute before Blackie bucked him into the soft 
dust of the corral. But he caught the calf and climbed 
right back on again. Before the dinner bell rang he 
was riding a perfectly tame Blackie around the corral. 

That afternoon A1 put Tippie through the same 
kind of act. When Mr. Dane rode in for his supper 
he was surprised to be met by two young riders, A1 
and Jed, each astride a young steer. 

“Well, well!” said Mr. Dane. “The little dogies 
have grown up at last and you’ve made saddle 
ponies out of them. If their daddy ever sees that 
he’ll chase you off the range. Watch out for him.” 

Tippie and Blackie had grown too big for the 
little wagons they had first pulled. So one day Jed 
said to Mr. Dane, “Dad, may we have the old 
broken-down buckboard out behind the corn crib? 
A1 and I want to make two chariots out of the wheels 
and have Blackie and Tippie pull us. Then we can 
have chariot races like those they have in the circus.” 

“Go ahead,” replied Mr. Dane. “You’re young 
only once. But don’t break your necks.” 


21 



So each boy took a pair of the buckboard’s 
wheels and nailed a box to the axle. A1 got the rear 
axle which had no shafts, so he had to make some. 
When the job was done each could stand up in his 
box and drive like a charioteer. The calves balked 
a bit at going into the shafts. But the boys finally 
harnessed them up and galloped them around the 
outside of the big corral at a lively pace. 

“Tippie is faster,” shouted Al. 

“Nope! Blackie can beat him,” replied Jed as 
he nearly took Al’s wheel off on a curve. Even the 
cowboys. Red and Slim, took an interest in the 


22 









The boys galloped them around the outside of the big corral 




































race and bet with each other as to who would win. 
First Tippie would come in ahead and the next time 
around Blackie would take a spurt and beat him. 

For days the winner was undecided. Then came 
the time for the Grange’s big barbecue. “Why not 
put on a chariot race at the barbecue?” asked Red. 
“Then you can settle who’s faster.” 

“That’s a good idea,” replied Mr. Dane. “I’m 
tired of listening to all this talk.” 

The Grange Barbecue was held every year at 
Grimm’s Grove. The ranchmen and their families 
came from miles around and brought rolls and cakes 
and pies and preserves and all kinds of other good 
things to eat. 

A tender young steer had been butchered the 
day before. The morning of the barbecue two cow¬ 
boys collected a great pile of dry wood and a big 
fire was started. When there were plenty of red hot 
coals the steer’s body was placed on a pole and hung 
over the fire so that it could be turned around and 
around. This constant turning allowed the meat to 
roast slowly and at the same time prevented it from 
burning. A1 and Jed knew how good it would taste, 
cooked with the wood fire! 


24 


After dinner was over, the games started. Horse¬ 
shoe pitching, a potato-sack race, three-legged race, 
fat men’s race, women’s race, “And this year,” said 
the announcer, “for the first time in the history of 
the Grange—a chariot race, with A1 and Jed Dane 
holding the reins over their speedy steers, Tippie 
and Blackie. Five times around the arena for a prize 
of five dollars to the winner!” 

The arena was the open space where the cars 
were parked. The cars had been arranged in a great 
circle and the boys had to gallop the steers around 
the outside. 

“Here’s where I show you who’s faster,” said 
A1 to Jed. “My Tippie will run rings around you 
today. I greased up my axles till my chariot runs 
like a scared rabbit.” 

Jed replied, “That five-dollar prize is going to be 
mine. When Blackie really gets going you’ll see 
who was right. Blackie will outrun you in a five- 
lap race.” 

The cowboys. Slim and Red, had disappeared 
after eating their dinner. Mr. Dane thought they must 
be up to some mischief when he missed them. And 
they were. Out to the ranch truck they went, Red 


25 



with a bottle of black stove polish and Slim with a 
can of white paint. While Jed and A1 were finishing 
up their second helping of pie the cowboys went 
back where the twin calves were tied up to the truck. 
Red took the bottle of black stove polish out of his 
pocket and blackened the white tip of Tippie’s tail. 
Slim dipped the tip of Blackie’s tail into the can 
of white paint. Tippie now looked like Blackie and 
Blackie looked like Tippie. 

“A1 an’ Jed will sure be fooled when they come 
for their steers,” laughed Slim. 


26 









“Al an Jed will sure be fooled,” laughed Slim 















When the announcer called for the chariot race 
the boys ran to the truck and pulled out their char¬ 
iots. A1 hitched up the steer he thought was Tippie 
and Jed thought he was hitching up his Blackie. 
Slim and Red watched them with grins on their 
weatherbeaten faces. 

“This is sure goin’ to be some race with five 
dollars as a prize,” said Red as he winked at Slim. 

“Yes, and you’d better bet on Tippie,” said Al. 

“Nope!” said Jed. “Put your bets on Blackie if 
you want to win.” 

They galloped their steers to the starting line 
and the announcer fired a big revolver to start them 
off. Away they went, lickety-split around the arena 
with all the ranchers cheering them on and waving 
their big felt hats. The dust flew as they galloped 
neck and neck five times around the track yelling 
at their steers and urging them on. It was anybody’s 
race as they came down the home stretch. 

Then Jed’s steer stepped in a gopher hole and 
went down in a cloud of dust. Jed fell out of his 
chariot and rolled over and over. Several ranchers 
ran to him and found that neither he nor his steer 
was hurt. So Al was declared the winner. He was 


28 



very proud of the steer he thought was Tippie as 
the announcer handed him a five-dollar bill. 


“Well, now!” said Slim to Al. “I’m glad Blackie 
won. I’d always Jiggered he’d win if you’d drive him! ” 
“What do you mean?” asked Al. “This is my 
Tippie.” 

“No,” said Slim, as several ranchers who were 
in on the joke began to laugh. “Jes’ look closely at 
the steer’s tail. You’ll find it’s Blackie’s tail with a 
white tip painted onto it. Tippie’s white tip is blacked 
with stove polish. Red and me did that trick while 
you and Jed were filling up on pie! Now are y’goin’ 
to give Jed the five dollars his steer won?” 


29 



A1 felt a queer feeling in the pit of his stomach 
as he thought of all the things he’d planned to buy 
with that five dollars. Now he wouldn’t have a 
nickel of it. His father came to the rescue. 

“As long as it was Jed’s steer and you drove it 
I think you should each get half of the five dollars,” 
said Mr. Dane. 

At this statement a smile came to the faces of 
both boys. The barbecue crowd, which had enjoyed 
the whole race immensely, broke into a loud cheer. 
A1 and Jed felt like heroes as they drove their animals 
back to the truck and loaded their chariots onto it. 


30 




Al and fed loaded their chariots onto the truc\ 







There were a lot of things each boy could get with 
his two dollars and a half—a hunting knife and 
sheath, a new lasso or cowboy boots or a big felt 
hat in a boy’s size—any one of these. All this came 
to their minds as they rode home with Tippie and 
Blackie in the back of the big ranch truck. 

Red looked back at them from the driver’s seat. 
“The world looks good, don’t it, when you’re a 
winner? An’ yer BOTH winners!” 

A1 and Jed agreed. But each thought to himself, 
“Next time we have a race I’ll take a good look at 
the tip of my steer’s tail!” 






















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